A Year Is Up...

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OK, so now that I have a bit of time free I thought I would actually take the time to update you all as to my most recent crusades, which is really not much. So the last time you heard from me I was in France having a ball of a time. Since then I have started my 'new' job at the same company, where I am now based onshore as opposed to offshore. But as things work out, I have been spending a lot of time offshore.

October brought about heap of rig moves. That pretty much sums that month up really. After completing one I was moved onto the next and so forth. The final one brought about a bit of disaster. The process goes once the rig is moved into place and the legs have been lowered onto the seafloor, weight is applied to the rig via a heap of water to simulate operating conditions. During this process when the rig was starting to jack up the strain on the legs need to be monitored carefully to ensure the legs do not break. A potentially long story short, as we were jacking up the legs were making a tremendous screeching noise that almost became deafening. After the crew stopped jacking it was discovered that the leg supports (talking about heavy beams) had bent. This resulted in the halting of operations and I got to move to the next rig move!

A few weekends ago brought about a cyclone passing by the coast of Oman and Yemen which kicked up a small swell in the Gulf. In the spirit of things, myself, Tim and Marie (a delightful little English and French couple Carl and I know over here) went or at least attempted to go surfing in the enormous waves the cyclone kicked up. The swell was about a foot high (biggest Dubai has seen in a long time). We rose early morning and the surf spot we chose was right next to the Burj Al Arab (the sail hotel). We ended up staying the whole day enjoying the overcast weather and the few rain drops that fell which was a novelty. Just before we left we managed to score ourselves a spot on Asian TV telling them how 'great' Dubai is. Apart from the sun, it really was difficult to find something nice to say about this place...

The next weekend brought about a golfing weekend with Johann my boss. The new golf and shooting club had just opened so we went and entered into a tournament and see how many prizes we could take. As it turned out, Johann's team took the majority of prizes(mainly because there was a professional golfer in the team!) but was a entertaining day none the less. We wrapped it up by going and letting off a few rounds at the shooting club. We won't say how that went. Next on the cards, paintball!!!! It seems as though things haven't changed much from University, funny that.

So it is coming into winter now here in the desert and temperatures have dropped significantly enough to be able to do stuff. Even though still in the mid to high 20's, everyone seems to become so much more happier around the place. Tension is high in the office as always with more and more work coming through but are coping so far. A recent development in my life is the purchase of a Jeep Wrangler 4wd. So once I am back onshore and have some time, provided it doesn't break down the sand dunes are calling.

Now as the title of this blog states, a year it up. As of today, one year is up with Horizon Survey Company which is a momentous occasion. Who would have thought I could stick to something this long, certainly not me. So congratulations to me, (and Carl) but I must add time has gone way way too fast. Does anybody have a remedy to slow time?? OK so the plan iis after this job (which has been delayed, AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!) I am heading to England for a few days for work, but that is now looking unlikely, and then am hoping to get home for xmas, which that too is looking unlikely. It has taken me 3 months to write this blog which is bad I know, sorry, so you may hear from me again in January 😊

Until then....

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Photos

My little baby...
...that will be used to terrorise Dubai with!

and again
with Johanns...